An ethnobotanical survey was conducted among herbalists in the north-central region of Morocco using a questionnaire in order to highlight knowledge and know-how and to establish an inventory of herbal remedies used in the treatment of diseases common in the region and rarely cited in the bibliography: in this case, it is insomnia, asthenia, and oral-gum infections. The results showed that 120 herbalists were interviewed in different areas of the Fez-Meknes region, about 86 species were cited and grouped into 60 families (47 plants to treat asthenia, 25 to treat insomnia, and 21 to treat oral and gum infections). The reported plants have been identified and presented with the binomial name, family, part used, and method of preparation. In addition, the versatility was observed in several plants, indicating that the same plant could be used to treat conditions of different groups. Herbalists are people of both sexes belonging to different age groups and have different socioeconomic and intellectual levels. Eighty percent of surveyed herbalists are willing to provide us information about plants in the studied area. The most cited plants for treating these diseases are Lavandula dentata, Matricaria chamomilla, Rosmarinus officinalis, Allium cepa, Origanum vulgare, Origanum majorana, Marrubium vulgare, Lepidium sativum, and Ocimum basilicum. The Lamiaceae are the most quoted family. The leaves are the most commonly used organs. Infusion is the most common form of preparation. The results of this ethnobotanical study could constitute an important source of information and databases for further research in the fields of phytochemistry and pharmacology in order to find new bioactive molecules. In addition, this document can be used in the protection of indigenous knowledge.

Roots of Withania somnifera, an important medicinal herb, are prone to the infection of Meloidogyne incognita (a root parasitic nematode). The infection lowers the quality and quantity of plant material and poses a challenge in crop cultivation and obtaining desirable yield. In the present study, in vitro inhibitory activity of vermicompost leachate (Vcom-L) was assessed against % hatch and survival of M. incognita in a 96 h assay. Then, Vcom-L was used as soil supplement in combination with vermicompost (Vcom) to evaluate their nematode inhibitory and stress alleviating effect in W. somnifera, in a pot experiment. Root galling intensity and growth performance of nematode-stressed W. somnifera raised from seeds pre-soaked in distilled water (DW), Vcom-L, vermicompost tea (Vcom-T) and different dilutions of Vcom-L were assessed. We observed 79% suppression of egg hatching and 89% juvenile (J2) mortality after 96 h compared to control, at 100% concentration of Vcom-L. Significant reduction in gall formation with increase in growth parameters of seedlings was observed after combined application of Vcom (60% or 100%) + Vcom-L and was evident as enhancement in seedling biomass and contents of chlorophyll and protein. However, proline, total phenolics and malondialdehyde (MDA) content declined significantly in these combinations compared to the control (0% Vcom). Activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidise (APX), guaiacol peroxidise (GPX) and glutathione reductase (GR) declined with Vcom as well as Vcom + Vcom-L and corresponded with decline in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in leaves. Further, 1:5 and 1:10 dilutions of Vcom-L in combination with Vcom (60%) proved beneficial in mitigating the nematode-induced stress in W. somnifera. Present results showed the potential of Vcom and Vcom-L in standardised combination as an effective strategy in controlling the pathogenicity of M. incognita in medicinal plants such as W. somnifera.

Although the beneficial effects of the agricultural extension of farmers’ biopesticides adoption have been largely demonstrated, the questions of what approaches can better extend biopesticides and how to improve their effectiveness still need to be explored. In a survey of 1148 rice farmers in Hubei Province, China, the technology supply and demand theory is used to explain the low efficiency of biopesticides extension. The endogenous switching probit model is used to estimate the impact of biopesticides technology publicity, training, demonstration and subsidies on farmers’ adoption. The results show that biopesticides extension can promote rice farmers’ adoption probability by 10.3 ~ 11.7%. And technology demonstration is currently the best way to extend biopesticides. Moreover, inadequate supply and demand of biopesticides are important for explaining the inefficiency of biopesticides extension in China. Extending biopesticides is better for farmers with smaller scales, younger ages, and lower education and for those who are cooperative members. Therefore, we should not only actively conduct biopesticides demonstration but also more importantly induce farmers’ biopesticides demand and secure the market supply of biopesticide products. These findings will provide useful guidance for biopesticides extension and pesticides reduction in China and other developing countries.

In this study, for the first time, the nanoparticle (NP) of Fe₂O₃@glutamine (C₅H₁₀N₂O₃) was synthesized to improve the Fe₂O₃ properties in absorbing carbon dioxide (CO₂) using the base fluid of hydrous N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solution (50 wt%), as a physically powerful CO₂ absorbent. To do this, several nano-NMP solutions, in different weight percentages of NPs, were first prepared. Then, in a batch setup, the nano-NMP solutions were directly exposed to CO₂ gaseous (at the pressures of 20, 30, and 40 bar) to clarify the effects of the mass percentage of NPs and initial pressure on CO₂ absorption. Results clearly illustrated that Fe₂O₃ nanofluid was not stable more than 0.025 wt%. However, Fe₂O₃@glutamine nanofluid was stable approximately two times more than Fe₂O₃ nanofluid due to the presence of glutamine as a hydrophilic agent in the structure of Fe₂O₃@glutamine. Moreover, in comparison to the base fluid (NMP solution), although Fe₂O₃ increased CO₂ absorption up to 9.14%, Fe₂O₃@glutamine NPs caused the CO₂ absorption to increase up to 19.41%, which can be determined as the chemical reactions of two amino groups in the glutamine structure with CO₂ and also higher stability of Fe₂O₃@glutamine NPs compared to bare Fe₂O₃ NPs. To achieve accurate results, all the mentioned experiments were repeated 5 times. The performance of Fe₂O₃ and Fe₂O₃@glutamine NPs after the fifth trial reduced by less than 3.5%, which reveals that the synthesized NPs had almost stable efficiency throughout their applications.

Long-term retention and accumulation of heavy metals in surface water and sediment pose a great threat to the sustainable development of aquatic ecosystems and human health. In this research, macrozoobenthos, and surface water and sediment heavy metal (Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Cd, and As) samples were collected from 23 sites in the upper and middle reaches of the Heihe River in the summers of 2019–2020. The interrelationships between heavy metals and macrozoobenthos were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA), and the contamination level and potential ecological risk of the heavy metals in surface water and sediments were assessed by comprehensive pollution index (WQI), single potential ecological risk index ([Formula: see text]), and sediment quality guideline-quotient (SQG-Q), respectively. The results showed that the level of heavy metal pollution in the surface water of the Heihe River was extremely low, but the contents of Mn and Pb exceeded the third class of surface water environmental quality standards (GB 3838–2002). The spatial distribution of heavy metals in surface sediments were significantly different, and the average concentration of 8 heavy metals exceeded the background values of Gansu Province. Meanwhile, the pollution level of heavy metals in surface sediments was high pollution, and the ecological risk level was moderate risk. Combining [Formula: see text] and SQG-Q evaluations showed that Cd, Ni, and Cr were the main ecological risk factors. In addition, the distribution coefficients of Cr and Cd were low, indicating that Cr and Cd were easily released from the surface sediments, causing secondary pollution. In terms of the source of the heavy metals, Cu, As, Zn, Cr, and Ni mainly came from industrial and agricultural wastewaters, Pb was from the mining industry and natural sources, and Mn and Cd mainly came from tailings and their landfill leachate. Basommatophora and Araneae can be used as potential indicator organisms for heavy metal pollution in surface water, and Basommatophora, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Araneae can be used as indicator species for heavy metal pollution in surface sediments. The study showed that macroinvertebrate community characteristics had a sensitive response to heavy metals in the surface waters and sediments of the Heihe River, which can be used to evaluate the pollution status of heavy metals in inland rivers.

The presence of microplastics in the sea is a global issue widely studied and discussed in the last years. The whole marine ecosystem is now considered at high risk because of their presence and abundance in every studied environment all over the world because polymeric materials commonly constitute the main raw materials in contemporary industrial production. The presented study reports the results obtained from surface seawater monitoring of two sampling transects in the coastal area close to the Venice Lagoon (Italy) inlet, investigated in order to get new information about the presence and relevance of plastic pollution. Plastic particles collected by means of a manta net (0.3-mm mesh size) have been characterized in detail by utilizing a multi-technique approach in order to discriminate them by typology, dimension, colour, spatial density and chemical composition. Such information permitted the individuation of subgroups (specific groups) of plastic micro-debris in this Northern Adriatic area.

Various experiments on the isolation of phenolic components from olive mill wastewaters (OMW) have been conducted and several methods have been used separately or in combination. Adsorption is characterized by its low cost and high efficiency. Nonetheless, the high initial cost of common commercial sorbents renders their substitution and the demand for a regeneration procedure essential. The purpose of this study was the investigation of the effectiveness of a coffee industry waste, spent coffee ground (SCG), for the adsorption of OMW bioactive components, after the extraction of its phenolics using emerging methods. The novelty of the present research is based on the holistic exploitation of SCG for the waste management of another food industry by-product, both of which are being produced in high quantities, consisting a potential hazard for the environment. The effects of different factors, such as the solution’s pH (2.0–10.0), temperature (20–60 °C), initial sorbate concentration (50–500 mg/L), and sorbent mass concentration (0.01–0.05 g/mL), on adsorption efficiency, were investigated performing batch experiments. The results were correlated to the effects of the investigated factors on the adsorption of gallic acid, which is one of the most abundant phenolic species in OMW. Adsorption yield reached a maximum of 45.44% after 20 min, at 30 °C and pH of 8.0, with an initial concentration of 162.5 mg/L and sorbent ratio of 0.02 g/mL. Different effects were found during gallic acid adsorption, where the efficiency was higher (70.69%).

Newly industrialized countries (NICs) have become important contributors of the global environmental deterioration in line with the increases in their share in global output. Exerted efforts towards increasing welfare through global integration and increased productivity have sometimes come at the cost of worsened environmental quality in most of the countries. This study employs augmented mean group (AMG) estimator and investigates the effects of economic globalization, human capital, gross capital formation, and total factor productivity on ecological footprint (EFP) in 11 NICs from 1975 to 2017. The study also contains bootstrap causality tests to obtain causal inference. Empirical results reveal that economic globalization and human capital are negatively correlated with EFP, while GDP per capita manifests a positive and highly significant relationship with EFP. Unit percentage increases in economic globalization index and human capital are found to create .17% and .39% reduction in ecological footprint, respectively. On the contrary, a percentage increase in total factor productivity creates .13% increase in EFP. Estimation results support the pollution halo hypothesis for 11 NICs and confirm the positive effect of human capital on the environment and expose the adverse effects of inadequate regulation. In terms of causality analysis, results reveal unidirectional causality relationships (i) from economic globalization to EFP, (ii) from GDP per capita to EFP, (iii) from trade openness to EFP and from EFP to total factor productivity. Human capital and EFP are found to be in bidirectional causal relationship. The study underlines the importance of global integration and human capital as they are negatively correlated with and causally linked to EFP. Policies that undermine the global economic integration and neglect effective regulations are expected to further aggravate environmental problems in NICs.

Low-carbon innovation can address both economic and environmental concerns; patterns of low-carbon innovation convergence can determine the effectiveness of mitigating the adverse consequences of climate change. Considering that economic openness has a huge impact on the development of innovation capability, this paper uses a conditional β convergence model to examine the convergence of low-carbon innovation in Chinese manufacturing industry and its relationship with economic openness. We incorporate the spatial spillover effect into the convergence function by constructing spatial error model, spatial lag model, and spatial Durbin model. Based on a panel data set of 30 Chinese provinces over the period 2004–2016, the results show that low-carbon innovation in Chinese manufacturing industry has a strong feature of conditional β convergence. The convergence rate of low-carbon innovation is slightly slowed down by economic openness, and the main reason is that the spillover effect is weak and the convergence rate is slow in lower open areas, so the convergence rate of the whole country is slowed down by that of the lower open areas. Although the economic openness in adjacent areas can contribute to the development of local innovation ability, but generally speaking, economic openness in local areas takes a stronger effect in promoting the convergence of low-carbon innovation than that in adjacent areas. The findings have important policy implications as they suggest the need for a more equal degree of economic openness among Chinese provinces to speed up the convergence of low-carbon innovation.

Globally, there is increasing demand for safe poultry food products free from antibiotic residues. There is thus a need to develop alternatives to antibiotics with safe nutritional feed derivatives that maximize performance, promote the intestinal immune status, enrich beneficial microbiota, promote health, and reduce the adverse effects of pathogenic infectious microorganisms. With the move away from including antibiotics in poultry diets, botanicals are among the most important alternatives to antibiotics. Some botanicals such as fennel, garlic, oregano, mint, and rosemary have been reported to increase the poultry’s growth rate and/or feed to gain ratio. Botanicals’ role is assumed to be mediated by improved immune responses and/or shifts in the microbial population in the intestine, with the elimination of pathogenic species. In addition, modulation of the gut microbiota resulted in various physiological and immunological responses and promoted beneficial bacterial strains that led to a healthy gut. There is thus a need to understand the relationship between poultry diets supplemented with botanicals and good health of the entire gastrointestinal tract if we intend to use these natural products to promote general health status and production. This current review provides an overview of current knowledge about certain botanicals that improve poultry productivity by modulating intestinal health and reducing the negative impacts of numerous pathogenic bacteria. This review also describes the efficacy, negative effects, and modes of action of some common herbal plants applied in poultry as alternatives to reduce the use of antibiotics.